WeeklySA_AdminCOUNTDOWN: Deadline fast approaching for the Government to ban controversial pesticide Terbufos linked to the fatal poisoning of six Soweto children…
By Monk Nkomo
South Africa’s Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen risks legal action if he fails in the next few days to act on the ultimatum from a coalition of civil society organisations including academics and trade unions.
The coalition is demanding that the Government bans lethal chemicals, including Terbufos implicated in the death of six children in Naledi last year. They have given the authorities until February 28 to heed their demands.
The group, which operates under the banner of the South African People’s Tribunal on Agri Toxins (SAPToA), petitioned Steenhuisen in November last year, holding the government and the chemical industry accountable for the serious illnesses and deaths of children from toxic pesticides. They called for the immediate banning of highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs), including Terbufos.
‘’ We demand that the Minister ban all HHPs that are already banned in the European Union within six months. The Minister has been put on notice to implement these actions or face legal action within 21 days.’’
They also demanded radical and expedited changes in the approval, use and regulation of agricultural poisons. The only way to stop further loss of life and long-term poisoning impacts is to remove these toxins from the market.
Appearing before Parliament’s portfolio committee on Agriculture in November last year, Steenhuisen cautioned that the ban on deadly pesticides like Terbufos, could trigger crop failure because the government had no alternative for the farmers who would not be able to control pests effectively without Terbufos.
The ban could also result in some farmers resorting to illegal alternatives of securing the pesticides through the black market trade.
The latest development has come as a blow to SAPToA who had given the government until the end of this month to ban the hazardous substances. A joint probe by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases and the Department of Health identified Terbufos as the cause of deaths of several children.
The civil society organisations said during the spate of the tragic incidents, there was panic to identify a culprit and attention was focused on spaza shop owners.
‘’ They (spaza shops) were scapegoated for a much bigger and complex problem. This has allowed the chemical industry to wash their hands of any responsibility for failing to ensure product stewardship of the toxic chemicals through the lifetime as required by the National Environmental Management Act’’. This narrative opened the door to the scourge of xenophobia which had to be stopped, the group said.
They were startled that the blame for the death and serious illnesses caused by these pesticides had been apportioned to spaza shops, the life blood of most communities in the country – a claim that fanned xenophobic flames in the townships. All this was done in a bid to deflect attention from the responsibility of the chemical industry for these historic and continuing tragedies.
Referring to the tragedy of the six children from Naledi, Soweto, who died after eating snacks bought from a local spaza shop, SAPToA said the affected families would never be the same after the Department of Health confirmed that the deaths were caused by an HHP called Terbufos.
Thereafter, scores of other instances emerged, of hospital emergencies related to children who had eaten from school feeding schemes and spaza shops.
‘’ The pesticide industry, aided by government, used this tragedy to conflate the incidences of food contaminated by deadly toxins with food-borne illnesses caused by expired or otherwise spoiled or rotten foods. These are separate occurrences that need discreet and systemic solutions.’’
The government, in response to the spate of these deaths and children suffering serious illnesses due to foodstuff contaminated by pesticides, decreed that all spaza shops in the country – most of which were operated by foreigners – should be regulated to ensure that they complied with health and safety standards. Many were shut down. Spaza shop owners were given a deadline to register with their municipalities by the end of this month.
The South African government, SAPToA added, had been warned many times by experts and activists but the authorities had chosen to prioritise the corporate profits of the chemical industry over Constitutional rights to the communities’ health and the right to a clean and healthy environment.
‘’We reject their attempt to scapegoat spaza shops and foreigners on this matter.’’
Nothing had been done to deal with the source of the issue, the inacceptable presence of HHPs on the South African market and the failure of the relevant government departments to carry out their duty to effectively regulate agrotoxins.
CropLife SA, which serves and represents manufacturers and supplied sustainable crop protection , plant biotechnology to the consumer sector, said in a statement that, together with their member companies, they were shocked by media reports about children falling ill and others dying because of foodstuffs that seem to have been contaminated by illegal pesticides.
The company noted that it was illegal in this country for any person to sell, have in their possession or use any pesticide that was not registered by the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) in accordance with the law. This registration dictated that a pesticide may only be sold in original approved packaging, with a detailed product label security affixed to the product container.
SAPToA called on the government to, amongst others :
* ban aerial spraying of pesticides, as recommended by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Toxics and Human Rights, Dr Marcus Orellana, following his visit to SA in 2023.
* establish an open and transparent process towards the banning of the category of Highly Hazardous Pesticides within the next three months.
* called on the government to establish an independent inquiry into the structural causes and the role of industry in the cases of pesticide poisoning.
* called on the government to implement its 2010 pesticide policy and to integrate this with a food security plan that reduces reliance on chemicals for pest control.
* urged the government to establish a Compensation Fund within one year that will compensate pesticide poisoning victims fairly and equitably.
* urged the Department of Health to ensure access to quality health care for survivors of pesticide poisoning – particularly children – whose long-term development and health may be at risk from the poisoning.
Terbufos is an HHP from the organophosphate family. It was listed as a “restricted agricultural remedy” in 2023, requiring specific labelling. Terbufos has been banned in the European Union since 2009 and there was no reason for it not to have been banned here – European bodies and African bodies react to poisons just the same, according to SAPToA.
Together with thousands of other pesticides, it poisoned farm workers daily. It is registered for agricultural, not domestic use. It is one of over 9 000 toxic chemical compounds registered for use in SA, in varying categories of toxicity, used extensively on wine, maize and citrus farms.
Farm workers were exposed to these daily. While men often do the spraying, women farmworkers were also vulnerable to pesticide exposure.
